Talk:Godwin Sule

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A fact from Godwin Sule appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 September 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Ugandan commander Godwin Sule was reportedly run over by one of his own tanks, contributing to the Ugandan defeat during the Battle of Lukaya?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2020/September. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Godwin Sule.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Amkgp (talk) 10:07, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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... that Ugandan commander Godwin Sule was reportedly run over by one of his own tanks, contributing in the Ugandan defeat during the Battle of Lukaya? (Source: Rwehururu, Bernard (2002). Cross to the Gun, pp. 125-126 details the reports about Sule's death and its effect on the Ugandan defeat at Lukaya; in addition this article describes the rumours about the death and its effects in less details.)

Reviewed: Mathos

Created by Applodion (talk). Self-nominated at 20:51, 19 August 2020 (UTC).[reply]

@Applodion: Does the offline source describe whether he was really crashed by his own tanks? This is the big issue here as it cannot be a rumour on a BLP. Will follow up with other aspects. I also would like to add that the source describing this DYK is by the Col himself, who is directly related to this, which is a concern. Vincent^LUFan (talk) (Kenton!) 12:43, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It's new, prose long enough, no copyvio issues, hook is hooky with a good length. Outstanding issues:

Neutrality: "The local soldiers were so furious about this information that Sule and Lupayi promptly left in their helicopter." This does not seem neutral to me. The source also did not explicitly state they were furious. Correct me if I am wrong.
Sources, as mentioned above
Accuracy of hook source.
QPQ

Vincent^LUFan (talk) (Kenton!) 12:57, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Vincent60030: Yes, the offline source says that he was crushed by one of his tanks. In fact, his corpse was later identified, apparently crushed ("Sule, who had been walking behind the tanks, was crashed by one of the tanks as he tried to reverse in retreat. (...) Amin later sent me word that the body had been found and that the head had been crushed."). Every source which gives detailed information about his death says that he was crushed by a tank; the question is only whether or not it was intentional, as some claim that he was murdered by his troops in this way. That was why I provided not just Rwehururu as source, but also the newspaper article. Rwehururu is also regarded as mostly reliable source by academics; for example, he is cited by researcher Tom Lowman (see here). As to the furious soldiers, one officer told Taban that "he feared one of the men would pick up a rifle and vent his anger on him." I don't know why else they would basically threat to shoot their own commanders unless they were furious - it should be noted that it was not unusual in the Uganda Army that officers were murdered (or least threatened) by lower-ranking soldiers. I will rephrase the sentence to make it more clear if that is ok. Applodion (talk) 14:39, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Applodion: Hmm, the neutrality is clear then since it is reasonable to say so. However, I have double checked on policies and checked the PDF you have given me. It appears that researcher Tom has cited Rwehururu as a primary source as well. "Primary sources are original materials that are close to an event, and are often accounts written by people who are directly involved." Do you have alternative secondary sources? Vincent^LUFan (talk) (Kenton!) 14:49, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Vincent60030: The nespaper article from above, seen here, is an interview by a journalist with a soldier who was not present during Sule's death. He says that "Under the cover of darkness, he was commanding the forces that were shelling Tanzanians. Then a bomb landed in front of the tank he was standing behind and dug a ditch which the tank could not surpass. And when the tank driver was reversing to surpass the ditch and advance as commanded, it ran over him". Considering this, it would seem to be a secondary source. Btw, I have rephrased the problematic section. Applodion (talk) 14:57, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alright. Now with the QPQ wait. Thank you very much for the contribution! Vincent^LUFan (talk) (Kenton!) 15:08, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Vincent60030: Will do. Thank you for the review! Applodion (talk) 15:50, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Vincent60030: Added QPQ. Applodion (talk) 22:24, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alright off to the qualified list. Vincent^LUFan (talk) (Kenton!) 03:45, 22 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]